Speech delivered by the President of the Government
Horta
Presidência do Governo Regional
Full text of the speech delivered today by the President of the Government, José Manuel Bolieiro, in Horta, during the discussion of the Plan and Budget for 2023:
"The Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region of the Azores discussed, as usual, the proposals for the Plan and Budget of the Azores Autonomous Region for 2023, which the Regional Government submitted to Parliament. This is the final speech before the voting session.
What is unusual, due to its severe intensity, is the complex and highly uncertain times we are experiencing in the world, in Europe, in Portugal and in the Azores, which strongly condition the context in which these documents are drafted and presented. Saying otherwise is to deny reality.
However: HOC NON PEREO HABEBO FORTIOR ME - What does not kill us makes us stronger.
During these three days, more than just ideas and intentions were discussed. In fact, several achievements were also demonstrated and explained.
The documents that the XIII Government of the Azores presented for discussion take into account, as their framework and assumptions, the bare reality. These are decisions that will change the lives of people, helping them in their jobs, in their families, in their businesses, in their schools, in their hospitals or health centres, in their parishes or municipalities, and on their islands.
They are neither mere pages, nor are they mere figures. They are the contents of real life. Our lives!
The Azoreans know me!
For me, politics is not, and never has been, a stage for showmanship and authoritarianism, as I do not pretend to know everything. Nor is it a mere space for theories and rhetorical proclamations. What really matters is doing, helping and making room for a change for the better.
I propose that we work together to get through this most difficult time with less suffering, solving problems and harnessing opportunities.
Our ambition is to do well, especially in adverse times. We are as responsible as we are realistic. We are as supportive as we are demanding. This Government has a sole interest, a sole motivation: serving the Azoreans well! For that, you can count on me and on my Government!
It is not always easy to reconcile different sensibilities, visions and opinions, but dialogue is and has been our best method for developing new ideas.
I am proud to lead this path of plural governance and of being an alternative to the governance that preceded us, which is guided by a decade-long project with a view to building the Azores with:
• School success;
• Better health for all,
• Equal opportunities;
• Sustainable development, based on a strong economy, with its traditional foundation on agriculture, fishing and, now also, tourism; but also capable of breaking new ground in the blue and green economies and focusing on science, which is also our future.
We want to strengthen Azorean society and its economy. We have been governing with full and crystal clear awareness of these times of tremendous difficulties, with the goal of finding a solution, which cannot be put off any longer, to the major problems left unsolved by the previous government. We also intend to have a strategy for the new opportunities to change the paradigm of our path towards the development of people and our economy.
During this legislative period, we have already faced the consequences of the pandemic crisis that is still unfolding and the consequences of the war in Ukraine that is still ongoing. This context has accentuated the inflation crisis and is now also pushing up interest rates or intensifying the energy crisis. The greatest world health crisis of the last 100 years, the greatest war conflict of the last 70 years and the greatest inflation crisis of the last 20 years have made out path harder, but they do not take us off course. The current situation is unparalleled in previous programming periods for public expenditure.
It has been a painful time for everything. We cannot expect to solve everything in a flash. The crisis affects us all. We must all react to fight the crisis. It is acceptable that some have to do more than others and that some may need more help. It is acceptable that some have to do more than others and that some may need more help. Not everything is the same, not everyone is in the same situation. The Government of the Azores has even anticipated and provided its contribution to reducing the effects of inflation in some areas and mitigating them in others. We have already done a lot to lessen the effects of inflation on people.
We have already taken important steps towards a paradigm shift in the Region in terms of its development.
Among many other actions and solutions, I will list some that directly benefit the people and the economy, and that many of you know and have already felt their impact.
• We have increased the Azorean Family Allowance Supplement;
• We have launched the innovative New Elderly Programme;
• We have subsidised the purchase and installation of solar panels at 100%;
• We have placed more than 1,000 workers into the regional education staff, including 429 teachers;
• We have begun the implementation of the digital textbook programme, with free delivery of equipment to the students covered in the first phase;
• More than 3,200 Azoreans have entered the labour market;
• The number of unemployed registered at Employment Centres is the lowest in the last 12 years;
• We have launched the tender for the construction of MARTEC;
• We have completed the accreditation process of the Azores Maritime School;
• We have granted the operation of the Santa Catarina Factory, maintaining jobs and conditions for business success;
• We have ended the apportionment of Community support in agriculture;
• We have certified, according to international animal welfare standards, the slaughterhouses on the islands of São Miguel and Terceira;
• We have launched new forestation projects;
• We have created the Integrated Entrepreneur Support Network;
• We are paying the municipalities of the Azores their share of the Personal Income Tax revenue, which the previous Government never wanted to pay;
• We opened the Radiotherapy Centre on Terceira Island;
• We have reduced the Health waiting lists;
• We now have 62 more doctors in the SRS than a year ago;
• We have started the remodelling and expansion works of the Velas Health Centre;
• We have settled the situation of health careers;
• We are progressively creating fairer conditions for health professionals to accomplish their noble mission.
I will end this listing of what has been done, as I am very far from exhausting the information about what has already been achieved.
We are governing the Azores with the determination and democratic humility that is our hallmark.
This is only possible with the responsible contribution of the Members of Parliament and the political forces that have built, throughout this legislative period, our governance model and our proposals, fulfilling the desire for change that the people of the Azores voiced at the 2020 elections. Those who say that this government solution is governing for survival have never been capable of dialogue. They have governed with an absolute majority and with a lot of intransigence and arrogance. This has also contributed to the Azores still registering some of the worst social indicators in the country.
I would like to take this opportunity to announce that we are going to conduct a study with the purpose of finding out about the overcost of health care in the Azores regarding the standard costs of health care in the National Health Service and that this may be a useful argument for the future revision of the Regional Finance Act.
We want the State to comply with national equity in the access to health care and in the support of public costs incurred with the financing of the Regional Health Service.
We are also solving problems in the education system. We are working for school success. We are fighting poverty. We are creating jobs, training people and investing in decent housing in order to break the vicious circle of poverty in Azorean society.
We are supporting families in order to reduce child-rearing costs.
We are strengthening the regional business fabric and helping to create more jobs. We are carrying out projects that cannot be postponed, which are planned for a ten-year period. We must think that the action of public policies, combined with effective entrepreneurship in our operation as a market economy, and the excellent qualification of our human resources, is for the decade and not just for the present.
Despite the very special situation of 2023, the yearly planning and budgeting is a path, it is not the very essence of the strategic vision. We must have the courage to break new ground, breaking with the old paradigms that hold us back and tie us to underdevelopment. We know that we can do more and better. We have challenges to overcome. And we have extraordinary opportunities. We seize opportunities!
We seized an opportunity when we made our vaccination process a national and international example. We seized an opportunity when our Regional Civil Protection Service responded promptly and effectively to the challenges of prevention and action that the volcanic earthquake crisis on São Jorge Island posed to us all. We have seized an opportunity when we created a solution of excellence, which has not failed, for the transport and supply of Corvo Island, which, in addition, ensures our ability to respond to the western group in the event of a maritime rescue.
We seized an opportunity when, to clarify matters for the Directorate-General of Competition, we made SATA return what it had unduly received. We have paid what the Region owed it and made a decisive contribution towards the process of saving SATA. Unlike those who condemned it, we have saved SATA. We seized an opportunity when we promoted the development of various agricultural products, particularly in the dairy sector, to ensure fairer payment for producers in the context of the agrifood value chain.
We seized an opportunity when we were able to support our tourism entrepreneurs in their recovery, resulting in the best year ever for tourism. It is not only in tourism, however, that our economy is more dynamic. There are clear signs in all sectors that the economy of the Azores is growing. We have never had so many people employed as in the present. Nor as few unemployed as now either.
Resources are always scarce. Choices must be made, priorities must be defined. This is political action. This is the real governing responsibility. We govern. We make choices!
We have increased the disposable income of families. We have lowered taxes. This was our choice! For the sake of consistency, the option of those who voted against can only be high taxes. This is the case with the Socialist Party.
We have promoted the mobility of the Azoreans. We have created the Azores Fare. This was our choice! For the sake of consistency, the option of those who found it to be an impossible and ill-prepared measure can only be its termination. This is the threat that the Socialist Party can pose.
For the sake of consistency, the option of those who have taken years to promote occupational programmes for everything and for nothing, creating dependencies and limiting the personal and human development of their beneficiaries, can only be to maintain the preference for the precariousness associated with them. We have acknowledged the relevance of accomplished professionals in vital areas such as Education and Health. We have stabilised labour relations and promoted careers in these areas. This was our choice!
For the sake of consistency, the option of those who maintained precariousness and always denied the professional enhancement of Health professionals can only be instability.
Yes! We are different. This is why we are doing something different. The Plan and Budget for 2023 will support the most fragile population and also the middle class. We have put maximum focus on social support to mitigate the costs of inflation. I would like to point out, among others:
- The 15% increase in the Regional Pension Supplement;
- The 22% increase in SchoolWelfare Support;
- The 15% increase in the Regional Family Allowance Supplement;
- The 15% increase in the Supplement for the Purchase of Medicine by the Elderly (COMPAMID);
- The 15% increase in the Special Supplement for Cancer Patients;
- The 5% increase in the Supplementary Remuneration, in addition to the additional 10% increase in the second half of 2022;
- The increase of support granted to Private Social Solidarity Institutions (IPSS) - this is a hallmark of this Government, and not of the government that preceded it.
We will support Azorean middle-class families to mitigate the impact of rising interest rates on housing; we will support the recapitalisation of our business fabric in partnership with retail banking. What drives us is the democratic mission to serve the Azores, our political autonomy and our progress. As I have already said at this Parliament in 2020, our political profile, respectful and dialogue-oriented, is recognised and will not change. That is what you can expect from us. All Azoreans, both our political supporters and adversaries.
The political and governmental project we advocate is not generational, it is intergenerational. It is not geographically limited, it is of and for the Azores. For our nine islands, for our 19 municipalities and 155 parishes, all are equally important. My purpose is to serve with responsibility, especially in the most difficult times we are living through. We must all contribute with what we do on a daily basis, with competence and dedication in our work, with tolerance and solidarity in our life in family and in society.
Each of us does our part and this makes all the difference. The success of each Azorean contributes to the success of our land. We believe in people and we invest in their capabilities and in their happiness.
We work hard in the present, not always aided by the past, but we want to leave a better legacy for future generations. Time will prove that the Azores are now changing for the better. While there are Azoreans in need of help, we will respond to them. As long as there is work to be done, we will do it. Whenever there are opportunities, we will seize them for the benefit of the Azores and the Azoreans. We do not turn our backs on problems, nor do we close our eyes to opportunities to do better and to correct past mistakes. We are certain that by doing the same thing, and making the same mistakes, we will not have different results. And we do not want to go down that path.
These proposals for the 2023 Plan and Budget are the result of responsibility. They were prepared with political and democratic responsibility. With social responsibility. They are the most socially responsible proposals ever. Responsibility towards environmental, financial and economic sustainability. Responsibility towards national and international commitments, namely compliance with the milestones and targets of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP).
The entry into force of these documents is essential and urgent to solve serious problems, avoid major problems and seize opportunities.
We have fulfilled our responsibility. For the Azores and with the Azoreans as our priority."
